A System Combining Underwater maneuvering nodes with Sea-Air Cross-Domain Communication Gateways

Distinguished from the relatively mature land-based communication technologies, current maritime communications mainly rely on traditional surface communication methods, such as shortwave, satellite communication, and aerial relay communication. These methods face challenges such as limited communication capacity, low resistance to interference and destruction, and significant vulnerability to environmental factors. Meanwhile, underwater communication primarily utilizes acoustic communication, which is constrained by factors like the speed of sound transmission in water, multipath effects, Doppler effect, time-variation, and limited available bandwidth, making its application still in the exploratory stage. This research is based on two significant conceptions. First, applying mature land-based communication methods to maritime environments can effectively address the limitations in communication capacity. Second, integrating communication networks with the aquatic environment can significantly enhance the network’s resistance to interference and destruction. Based on these conceptions, the study develops and implements underwater mobile communication nodes, embedding sea-air cross-domain communication gateways into these mobile underwater facilities. By combining underwater mobile facilities with underwater fiber-optic technology, the system provides high-throughput communication links in aquatic environments, supplemented by wireless access devices. This setup not only ensures resistance to interference and destruction but also achieves large-scale, high-throughput communication networking. The result is the creation of a new type of maritime communication system with mobility, resilience, and distributed characteristics. This study focuses on the problem of reconstructing and mobile networking in the sea, and attempts to build a mobile network in the sea by integrating cross-domain technologies and applying them in multiple fields. By combining underwater mobile facilities and underwater optical fibers, a water-based mobile backbone network with "small nodes and large network" is established at specified locations in the sea, supplemented by wireless communication means and underwater acoustic communication means to form a distributed surface communication subnet and an underwater situational network, establishing a "shared information domain" in the sea area, enabling the units of mobile platforms in the area to share information with each other. In addition, underwater mobile equipment can be used as relay nodes to carry out shore-to-sea communication relay based on satellite-based airborne communication means, establishing a "communication conduit domain" to achieve "communication within the area, interconnection across areas, and joint operation between the shore and the sea."